


When Saying "I Love You" Is Dangerous

by shnuffeluv



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Asexual Character, Demiromantic Character, Explosions, F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Multi, Polyamorous Marriage, Polyamory, Sex, Slice of Life, Soulmate's Name Written on Palm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:33:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26741428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/shnuffeluv
Summary: Leverage Soulmate AU. A look into the lives of Elliot, Hardison, and Parker, and how their relationship develops and grows.
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37
Collections: Fic In A Box





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [quantumducky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumducky/gifts).



When it happens, Hardison very nearly has a heart attack. The rumble of the explosion can be felt for blocks, and his blood turns to ice in his veins. He dashes through crowds of people who were running away from the throngs, his heart pounding in his ears, the only thing he can hear as he sees the fire engulf the building. The building where Parker and Elliot had been working.

He keeps running, running, all the way to the building, looking through the throngs of people who are still alive stumbling out of the building. He looks around wildly, looking to get a glimpse of that blonde hair, of those angry eyes. He needs to know that they're okay. And his knees buckle when he sees Parker and Elliot hobble out of the building, Eliot leaning heavily against Parker.

They hadn't been running a con today, that was the scary thing. Today, they were just normal people who had been caught in a tragedy. Elliot came over and hugged Hardison tightly. Parker helped Hardison stand up and muttered, "We should go."

Nodding, Hardison helped Parker with Elliot and together the three of them went to the alley where Hardison had been hiding Lucille. They sat in the back of her for a while, just breathing. Hardison closed his eyes and leaned his head against the van. "Oh my god," he breathed.

It was what they were all thinking: oh my god.

Hardison fumbled with the glove over his left hand. "I...I know I wasn't ever going to tell you guys, what's on my wrist..." he fumbled.

Elliot and Parker immediately started saying he didn't have to do anything he wasn't comfortable with, that he should wait until the adrenaline wore off. In their profession, showing your soulmate's name was nothing more than leverage to be used against you.

"Stop," Hardison said, and the two trailed off into silence. "I need to show you guys."

He took off his glove and showed them the names in all their glory. The blocky letters of Parker's handwriting, with her name sitting there, and Elliot's aggressive scratches of his name just below Parker's on his palm. "I didn't know how to say anything..." Hardison said, swallowing. "So I didn't."

"Alec..." Parker looked like she might cry, before muttering, "Fuck it," and taking off her own glove, showing the almost type-face worthy handwriting showing Hardison's first name, as well as having Elliot's name on her palm as well.

Hardison felt his heart leap into his throat. He knew how Elliot felt about love. About soulmates. He knew he didn't believe in them, because he had fallen in love without his soulmate being that person before. But when Elliot slowly removed his own glove, it showed Hardison's and Parker's names. "I never showed mine before...even when I was in the army. After all, having two soulmates...it isn't exactly the most accepted thing, you know."

Hardison nodded understandingly. "I was the same."

"I didn't care," Parker said. "But I always kept it covered because I was always a thief. Ever since I could remember. And I didn't want to get my soulmates in trouble."

The three of them sat there in heavy silence for a while. "...What do we do now?" Hardison asked. "Nate, he never...he never asked, but we all know how he felt about dating someone else within the job."

It was risky. If you broke up, you could lose the perfect team. It was almost not worth it. The only reason the _almost_ was there was because of Sophie.

"I don't think he should know," Elliot said. "We tell him if he asks, but if he doesn't ask, we don't say."

"It not like he's gonna care, right? We're our own team now. He and Sophie are off doing their own thing," Parker said with a shrug.

"Yeah, it's not like he can stop us, either," Hardison reasoned.

Elliot shifted and grimaced.

"Are you hurt?" Hardison asked. "Do we need to take you to the hospital?"

"No hospitals," Elliot said. "It's just a sprained ankle I need to stay off of, and a couple bruised ribs from the blast."

"It was on your floor?" Hardison asked, feeling the breath in his body leave in a rush. They were _that_ close to death? Hardison hadn't even wanted to consider the possibility of them being on the floor when the bomb went off.

"It was on _my_ floor," Elliot said. "By that point Parker was wandering around the vents."

"I was two floors down," she said. "Good thing, too, because even there the vents were heating up fast thanks to the bomb."

Parker's hands, Hardison realized, were turning a dark red. "Do you need some ice for that?" Hardison asked.

"I'll be okay," Parker said with a soft smile. "Don't worry, Alec. Okay?"

"You know me," Hardison laughed. "I'm going to worry no matter what."

Parker shook her head. "I don't need ice, but thank you. Can we just go home?"

"Yeah," Hardison said. "You two get seated back here, I'll drive us home. And whatever you do, _don't touch my stash of soda."_

The three of them laughed a little at that, at the sense of normal, the fact that no matter what, Hardison would never want his soda to be touched. He got out of the back and moved to the front, letting out a shaky breath as he replaced his glove. His soulmates knew. That was terrifying. But, since they knew, maybe there would be some hope for him in the relationship department after all.

He drove back to their restaurant, leaning back in his seat only when he puts the van in park. He was still impossibly shaky. He moved out of the van on autopilot, going to the back and helping Elliot inside, while Parker explained things away to the restaurant staff. When they were in the back, safe and sound, Hardison found himself starting to cry. He was in shock, he dimly realized, but knowing that didn't make the crying stop.

Elliot softly said, "Alec," patting the spot next to him on the couch. Hardison sat down heavily next to him and said nothing.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm here," Elliot said.

"I just..." Hardison swallowed. "I was so scared," he said. "The fact that you two could have been dead. I didn't want to face that possibility on a day where we weren't running a con. Staring down the barrel of a gun as one of my aliases? I might not be able to think completely straight, but I can manage. But...losing my soulmates, as me, I just..."

Elliot nodded. "It's different when it's you," he said. "I'm used to it by now. But even being used to it, not knowing where Parker was, if she was safe..."

Parker came over and sat down next to them. "Let's just be glad that didn't happen, right?" she asked softly.

Hardison and Elliot both nodded. "...What now?" Hardison asked. "What do we do with the rest of our day?"

"I want to go on vacation somewhere," Parker decided. "Not right away, but I want us to plan a trip to relax. Maybe jump off of buildings. Steal some things without it being a job. You know?"

Elliot huffed a laugh. "You know, you could get in real trouble doing that," he teased.

"Only if I get caught," Parker said. "Which I won't."

Hardison rolled his eyes. "Okay. Vacation. Where to?" he asked, pulling out his laptop and pulling up plane tickets.

"Sophie never wanted us to go to London, but I want to see it," Parker said.

"Sophie never wanted us to go to London because we'd act like stereotypical tourists," Hardison laughed. "But Sophie's not here now."

"I'm okay with going to London once my ribs are healed up," Elliot offered.

Hardison typed in a couple possible dates to compare plane tickets. "Okay, London then," he said. "Any particular places we want to go?"

Elliot and Parker didn't say anything right away. "The London Eye," Elliot muttered. "I want to see it."

"I'd like to see some of the museums," Parker said. "Assess their security."

"I don't know about you two, but I'd love to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum," Hardison said with a smile.

Elliot groaned. "Why am I surprised?" he asked. "You _would_ be that sort of nerd."

Hardison laughed. "Boy, you're just jealous that I have all the original stories and most of the adaptations in my collection."

"I'm really not," Elliot said, but his eyes were sparkling with amusement.

Hardison shrugged. "Whatever. If either of you want to watch a movie, pull one up. Something tells me that we're just gonna hang out in here for a while yet."

Parker pulled out a couple of movies and Hardison went to make popcorn. Elliot leaned into the couch and propped up his ankle, and all three of them laughed at the villains in the movies and their blatant mistakes. Parker threw popcorn at the screen, and Hardison was pointing out everything he knew about the recording tech at the time, and how he could have done so much better with only surveillance footage. Staying around Sophie so much had made him a bit of a film fanatic.

The three of them wound up falling asleep on the couch, snuggled into each other. And though they wouldn't acknowledge it out loud when they woke up, they definitely enjoyed it.

* * *

They stepped off the plane in London and Hardison let out a sigh. "Sophie wasn't kidding about the weather," he muttered, looking out the bay windows as they entered the airport.

"It'll be just cloudy tomorrow, not rainy, according to the forecast," Parker said, looking at her phone.

"Are we heading straight to the hotel?" Elliot asked, grunting as he lifted up his luggage.

"I think so, it's midnight here. Not much will be open but the bars," Hardison said.

The three of them left the airport, Parker observing all the rich people around, but for once, not stealing anything. She kept her free hand in Elliot's, and Elliot stayed just a step behind Hardison the whole time.

As soon as they were at the hotel room, they groaned. Instead of having the king they requested, there was a queen and a cot set up in the corner. "I'm not sleeping on the cot," Elliot said. "My ribs are still healing."

"It might be a tight squeeze, but we can all fit on the Queen, right?" Parker asked.

"I'm not sleeping in the middle if we try, I'll get claustrophobic," Hardison said.

"I'll sleep in the middle," Parker said, stripping out of her clothes.

"Woah, woah, woah! Woman, what are you doing?!" Hardison asked.

"What? I only sleep in my briefs," Parker said, crawling under the covers and curling up. "If you don't like it, you can take the cot."

"I never said I didn't like it," Hardison said, stripping down to his boxers. "But you gotta give me some warning next time. Some time to admire you."

Parker smirked and Hardison pointed at her before she could say anything. "Don't say anything," he said.

"I wasn't going to," Parker said innocently.

"I might," Elliot warned.

Hardison just stared blankly at Elliot. "Any way I can keep you quiet?" he asked.

"I can think of a couple ways," Elliot said.

"Oh, if you two are going to make out, I wanna watch," Parker teased.

Elliot turned to her with a glare. "Shut up," he muttered.

"Make me!" Parker said with obvious glee.

Elliot growled, walking over and pulling her into a deep kiss. Hardison felt himself blush as he looked away. They were officially a "thing" at this point, but he still felt awkward about watching PDA, even if it was "just" his partners.

"Hardison, you always do this!" Elliot groaned as he pulled away from Parker. "Honestly, it's just kissing! It's not the worst thing we could do around you!"

"I know," Hardison said. "Maybe I just prefer privacy for these sorts of things!"

"Maybe you're just acting like a prude," Elliot said. "Like, come on, man. It's not sex!"

"Wait, is sex an option?" Parker asked, eyes lighting up.

"No! No, sex is not an option!" Hardison said, feeling his chest seize up.

Elliot and Parker both gave him odd looks. Hardison crossed his arms. "What?"

"I've never seen you react that vehemently to something before, man. You all right?" Elliot asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Hardison lied.

"You don't like sex?" Parker asked.

Hardison squirmed. "Not really," he admitted. "It's just...messy, and involves too much skin for my liking."

"Are you asexual?" Parker asked.

"What?" Hardison asked.

"You know..." Parker said. "You don't experience attraction to people sexually?"

Hardison blinked. "That's a thing?!" he asked in shock.

"Yeah," Parker said with a laugh. "I'm on the aromantic spectrum, which is the same thing but with romance. I need a strong emotional connection before I can fall in love. I was always so skeptical of having soulmates, but being soulmates with you two just...makes sense."

"Huh," Hardison said.

"So, he's not being a prude?" Elliot asked, turning to Parker.

Parker shook her head. "If he doesn't like sex, that's not something he can control, any more than I can control not having crushes on people I don't know."

"Oh," Elliot said. "Sorry, Hardison."

"It's fine," Hardison said with a hand-wave. "I didn't know about this either, I just thought I was broken somehow."

"You could never be broken," Elliot said. "You're perfect just the way you are."

Hardison smiled, biting back a yawn. "I don't know about you two, but I'm exhausted," he said. "I'm ready to sleep. Good night."

He crawled into bed next to Parker and was out like a light.

When he woke up the next morning he was alone in bed, but he could hear the shower running in the en suite. There was a note on the pillow next to him. "Having shower sex! If you don't want to hear, put in headphones!" it read in Parker's handwriting.

Hardison put in headphones and pulled out his laptop, googling tourist spots that the three of them might want to see that day. He played music on low and it was enough to block out any noises he might not want to hear from the shower.

When he had categorized everything they had said they wanted to see and made a loose schedule for them, the bathroom door opened and steam curled out towards the ceiling for a few seconds before Elliot walked out with a towel around his waist. Parker came out completely naked and Hardison did a double take. "Woman! Just because I like your breasts does not make me any less asexual! Put on a towel around your waist!" he exclaimed.

Parker laughed. "Sorry," she said, going to her suitcase and pulling on a pair of briefs. "I didn't know how far your sex-repulsion went."

"Now you know, please don't do it again," Hardison said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Of course," Parker said. "I'm not a monster, Alec."

"No, you're not," Hardison sighed. "Did you two enjoy your shower?"

Elliot laughed, nodding. "It was a very nice shower," he said. "Do you want to take one of your own, or do you want to head out now?"

"I'll take a shower tonight," Hardison said. "I made a schedule for our sight-seeing, if you two want to see it."

"Leave it to you to make sight-seeing boring," Parker teased, sitting on the bed anyway to peer over Hardison's shoulder.

"We don't have to follow it," Hardison said. "It was just something to do while the two of you had your fun."

They looked through everything, and after Elliot and Parker agreed to the plan, they all got dressed for the day and headed out.

They got to ride the London Eye, see a couple museums, and generally wander around the streets of London, looking around at everything with no small amount of interest. "It's weird to think that people actually live here day-to-day and don't give what we're passing a second thought," Elliot said.

"I know," Hardison said. "I would say I'd love to live here, but I guess it would get boring after a while."

Parker was looking around, not saying anything. "A lot of the buildings around here are low," she complained. "I want to rappel off _big_ buildings."

"Well, I'm sure we can find something you'd be interested in," Elliot said with a grin. "Maybe we should move to more business-like areas than tourist traps."

They went down to the tube and looked at the map, figuring out where they should go. Hardison was content to follow the other two around wherever they wanted to go, and see them happy. As he listened to Parker chatter about rappelling, and Elliot talk about friends he had who had been here, Hardison realized that he was well and truly in love with these two. That was...surprising. But nice. And as they exited the tube and Parker's eyes lit up at the taller buildings, Hardison realized there were no other people that he would rather be in love with.


	2. Chapter 2

Parker sometimes wondered how to show that she loved Hardison and Elliot. Sure, she hoped they knew. They were soulmates for a reason, weren't they? But it wasn't always easy to tell someone you loved them.

With Elliot, it was a little easier. She could hang around him and let him teach her cooking which would devolve into making out on the counter and sex. Parker was good at sex. It was how she showed love best. She could nip and bite with the best of them, but Elliot liked being slow, and tender, and gentle most of the time. There were days where he'd be upset and they'd be rough, ripping each others' clothes off and pulling hair and leaving hickeys in every spot imaginable. But most of the time Elliot liked soft, so that's what Parker gave him.

Hardison, though, was more difficult. Parker didn't just say "I love you." That was dangerous. That made her vulnerable. She hated it. But Hardison was ace, and sex-repulsed. She couldn't show love the way she had learned how to do it best when she was a teenager and a young adult. She couldn't just make out with him and expect it to lead to something more where she could show him everything she knew, and show him how much she remembered about him, every inch of his body. It wasn't something he wanted, and she respected that, but damn if it didn't make showing her love that much more difficult.

She would talk to Elliot about this after they had sex, more than once. Elliot always told her that Hardison knew she loved him, no strings attached. Parker asked how he could be so sure, but Elliot would always just shake his head and say, "I don't know. But I'm sure."

That didn't satisfy Parker. She needed to know that Hardison knew he was loved. She would hang around him when he did programming and ask him to explain something he did in a way she found interesting and easy to follow, but whenever he started going on about formatting code and leaving out a colon in a specific place, she got lost and felt guilty for being unable to just understand what Hardison was trying to tell her.

She got him a soda one day when his was running low, and as their fingers brushed up against each other as Hardison reached for something to drink, he laughed. "I love you too, Parker," he said, and the sincerity in his voice caught Parker off guard.

"What?" she asked.

"I love you too," Hardison said, looking up at her as he took a drink.

"I didn't say 'I love you,'" she said, sitting down next to him cross-legged, and frowning deeply.

"Of course you did," Hardison said.

"No, I didn't!" Parker insisted.

"Well, maybe not out loud, but you got me another drink," Hardison said. "You noticed that I needed one and instead of continuing whatever you were doing, you got me another drink first. That's one way you tell me you love me."

"I do?" Parker asked.

Hardison frowned. "Yeah, babe. What, did you not mean to say that when you did it?"

"I guess I didn't realize that's how you interpreted it," Parker said, frowning. "I do. Love you, I mean. It's hard to say, but I do want you to know..."

"And I do know," Hardison said, smiling. "Because you tell me in so many little ways that I appreciate the hell out of."

"Like what?" Parker asked, frowning.

"Like what you did with my soda just there, but also with food. If I've gone too long without eating, you'll shove a plate of food at me. And I know it's you even if I don't realize it's there at first, because Elliot never does that. He cooks food, but he doesn't bring it to me and expect me to eat," Hardison explained. "And when you let me talk about computers and coding, too."

"I almost never know what you're saying," Parker protested.

"Maybe, but you let me try and explain to you. You let me get excited over it. You listen to me, even if you don't know everything I'm saying. That's so, so important. I try to explain to Elliot, but he just gets annoyed. He shows me love in other ways, in a lot of physical touch that I'm okay with. But I know you can't usually do that without the expectation of sex. And that's okay, I get it," he cut in before Parker could start protesting. "That's just how you work, girl, and I'm not offended by it. Because you show me all this love and attention in other ways. You make sure that I know you love me. Even without words, or sometimes with words that aren't 'I love you.' You show me that in so many different ways, and I'm so thankful for it."

"So, you don't...mind? That I have sex with Elliot and not you?" Parker asked.

"Sex is how you show him you love him," Hardison said. "Taking care of me is how you show me you love me. And yeah, those are two different things. Yeah, you might have sex more frequently than you care for me. Or not. Maybe, I don't know how often you two get down and dirty, and I don't care to. But you take care of me often enough that I feel loved through it. And as you learn other ways to show you love me, yeah, you might take care of me less and incorporate those ways more. But as long as you make the effort with me, I know you love me. And I feel happy about that. You have no idea how happy it makes me that you try, Parker. You really don't."

"I know I don't," Parker said. "But I'm happy I can make you happy." She felt tears coming to her eyes and she smiled. "I've never been happier than when I'm with you and Elliot."

Hardison kissed her tenderly and murmured, "I know."

* * *

Parker was ready to have some fun with Elliot. After her talk with Hardison, she had noticed little ways she cared for both Elliot and Hardison a lot more, but Elliot had been tense recently. They had taken a quick break from sex when Parker had admitted she wanted to find a way to share her love in other ways, but Parker was ready to try again, not only for herself, but for Elliot. When he walked in the apartment, she was perched on a chair wearing nothing but see-through lingerie. Elliot nearly spit out his coffee in shock. "I take it you're about to asking for something sexy," he choked out once he had gotten his breath back.

"And if I am?" Parker asked with a wink.

"I would want to make sure that you're one-hundred percent ready," Elliot said, walking over and caressing Parker's cheek. "You're not doing this for my sake?"

Parker leaned into his touch and hummed. "Not _only_ for your sake," Parker said.

"I can work with that," Elliot said with a grin.

They left a note for when Hardison got back and headed to the bedroom, Elliot nipping at Parker's earlobe and Parker working off the lingerie as best she could along the way.

Once in the bedroom, Parker was working on Elliot's shirt buttons and Elliot was kissing her passionately. "Mmph," she muttered into Elliot's mouth. "You realize how hard it is to undo your button-up when you're blocking my eyesight?"

"Since when has that stopped you before?" Elliot asked with a smirk.

"True," Parker said, returning to the kiss and finishing the last few buttons with nimble fingers as Elliot got his pants off.

The two of them headed to the bed and Parker could see Elliot was ready as soon as he pulled down his boxers. Parker laughed, teasing him a little and Elliot offered a playful growl in response. Elliot nipped at Parker's neck, while Parker pulled Elliot down onto the bed, laughing the whole time. Their sex was filled with laughter, and teasing, and gentle declarations of love in the way Elliot caressed Parker's hips, the way Parker ran her way through Elliot's hair, and how they made sure the other one was comfortable at all times.

When they both were satisfied, they spent some time just cuddling each other on the bed. Parker was half asleep as she mumbled, "I love you."

"I love you too, my love," Elliot said. "I wish I could hear you say it more often sometimes, but I know you don't always feel safe saying it."

Parker considered. "I don't know," she said slowly. "I've been getting better at it."

"You have, and I'm so proud of you for it," Elliot said. "But you don't often say it, even if you think it. And while you show your love in other ways, that doesn't discount the power of words."

"It's just that, though," Parker said, as Elliot rubbed his thumb in circles over her nipples. "Words have so much power. And what if...what if I commit to the two of you, but you're not ready to commit to me?"

Elliot was quiet for a good minute, before he said, "You know, I wonder the same thing, sometimes."

Parker looked at him, and she could see the pain in his eyes. "We say we love each other after sex, because that's just a thing you say," Parker said. "We've talked about that. We both feel sort of...obligated to say it. But...this time, Elliot, I meant it."

"I know you did," Elliot said.

"Did you?" Parker asked.

Elliot was quiet. "I meant it as much as I ever can mean it nowadays," he said softly. "And I know that might not mean much, but..."

"It's enough for me," Parker said, kissing his jaw. "How about we make each other a deal?"

"I can work with that," Elliot said, looking at her. "What's the deal?"

"We don't say we love each other to the other until we really mean it. We can bring Hardison in on it, too, if you want."

Elliot considered. "I can work with that," he said finally. "You might have to wait a while yet to hear it from me, though."

"That's okay," Parker said. "I want to make sure you're ready for it, that you're not pressured into anything."

Elliot laughed. "When you say that, you make it sound like sex," he said.

Parker hummed. "It's more important than just sex, Elliot," she said. "It's love."


	3. Chapter 3

Elliot didn't know how he felt about Hardison and Parker. He knew they were his soulmates, and he did care for them very much, but he wasn't sure if he could say he was in love with them. Being in love with people was dangerous, and he didn't know how to navigate this brand new world of options. He would cook for them and listen to Hardison ramble about his games, and spar with Parker whenever she wanted, but was that really love? Or was he just humoring them, lying to himself? He had been in love before, without the whole soulmate thing attached, and he had thought she was in love too, until she found her soulmate and left him.

He had told this to the others once, when he had drank a little too much and had gotten weepy. He didn't regret telling them, exactly, but he knew that they saw him in a different light because of it. Not necessarily a _bad_ light, but one that he had hoped they wouldn't see him in. He only hoped that they didn't pity him, like he had feared initially.

When Elliot was cooking food one day, Hardison came up behind him and hugged him. "Hello, darling," Elliot said, kissing Hardison's cheek.

"Hello," Hardison said. "Parker and I were debating what you were making for us. She claims it's Italian, I'm of the firm opinion it's Chinese."

"Neither. Korean," Elliot said with a smirk. "I like surprising the two of you sometimes."

Hardison hummed, turned to where Parker was no doubt playing one of Hardison's video games, and called, "It's Korean, babe!"

Parker swore loudly and Elliot and Hardison chuckled. Elliot felt his heart flutter a little as Hardison kissed his cheek. Elliot's stomach flipped involuntarily as he had to catch himself from saying, "I love you," to Hardison. He didn't know where that had come from, but he knew that he wasn't quite ready for it to be out in the open yet.

Hardison left the kitchen and Elliot stared at the writing on his hand. He loved his soulmates. The realization hit him like a sack of bricks. He hadn't questioned if his love was enough for them recently, just how he loved them. But he did love them, that was undeniable. If he love was a little different than most, well, that was okay. But he couldn't deny the fact that he was hopelessly head-over-heels. His stomach lurched again. He loved them. With his whole heart. And he didn't want anything happening to them.

What was he supposed to do with this information? He wanted to spend the rest of his life with the two idiot geniuses who would fight over whether or not a Pop-Tart was ravioli for the sake of fighting over something pointless. That was terrifying.

He finished cooking and plated everything, before excusing himself to the bathroom quickly. He opened the medicine cabinet, because Hardison and Parker never looked in there for anything, and brought out the three rings he had in there. He had bought them on a whim from a junk shop forever ago, thinking of the others when he had seen them. The major issue being, that if he had brought them out as gifts, the others might have gone to think he was proposing.

But tonight...tonight he wanted to propose. He wanted to be hopelessly in love with these two for the rest of his life, damn the consequences. He was terrified, but he slipped the ring box holding all three rings in his pocket. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from grinning like a madman. Was he really going to do this? The hysteria he felt at the prospect told him that it might not be such a great idea. And yet...if he didn't do it tonight, when would he? He wasn't much for grand gestures. Dinner and a talk would be more than enough for him.

He walked out of the bathroom to find Parker and Hardison had waited to start eating until he had arrived, and he smiled. He loved these two. He really, truly did. And that was okay. He was more that ready to marry them.

He sat down and they all started to eat, the three of them talking about their days, and Parker brought up a couple jobs that they might be able to do soon. Elliot nodded along while Hardison brought up that he'd need to do some research to see which job would be top priority. When they had finished dinner, Elliot cleared his throat to gather the other two's attention. "I love you both," he said softly.

Parker beamed and Hardison responded, "We love you too, Elliot."

"No, I mean..." Elliot felt like he was tongue-tied. How did he explain what he wanted here? "I love you two. I understand why you're my soulmates. And I want to make sure that everyone knows we're soulmates."

"What are you saying, Elliot?" Parker asked.

Elliot's heart was pounding, but he brought out the ring box and opened it. "Found these a while back," he said. "Didn't know when I'd give them to you, but now seems like as good a time as any."

Parker's hand flew to her mouth and Hardison looked like he might faint. "Oh my god," Parker said. "I mean, yes, of course! Of course I want to get married! I had thought a little bit back about proposing, but I didn't know how I would do it, or how either of you would respond, so I...didn't."

"I don't know where we'd be allowed to be married, being polyamorous, but I'll find out where, and if no one will, I'll officiate myself," Hardison said faintly. "I...I love the two of you more than words can say. I hope you know that."

Elliot smiled. "I love you too. And I mean it. I questioned for a while if I loved you two properly, but then I realized that the only proper way to love you two was how I already did. And if other people don't think it's proper, that's their problem."

He took out the rings and placed his own on his finger, a traditional gold band, before passing Parker hers, which was dark black and able to spin, and Hardison his, which had clockwork and gears all over it. He thought they all fitted each other well, and was pleased that he had correctly guessed their sizes from the assortment at the junk shop.

"So...we're getting married?" Parker confirmed.

"Looks like it," Hardison said, breaking into a grin.

Elliot grinned back. "I know it's a bit unconventional, but so are we. And I think that this would work for us."

"Definitely," Parker agreed. "What do we tell Nate? I'm not taking off the ring when he's around."

"We tell him the truth," Hardison said. "And if he doesn't like it, he can stick his problems where the sun don't shine."

Elliot laughed. "Sounds good to me."

The three of them talked about wedding plans, and who they might invite. Because whether or not everyone approved, they wanted to have the ceremony. And as they talked, Elliot realized there was no place he'd rather be, and no one he would rather be with.

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all comments welcome!


End file.
